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Dickishness? Or Fun?

Spinks’ post reminded me of something. Last week, during our Barad Guldur raid in LotRO I started laughing because of a conversation I was having with the other Captain in the raid. And when I decided to share my ‘evil’ thoughts with the rest of the raid, it exposed what might be called ‘dickish’ behaviour on my part. There’s a firey mob in the raid that, when it dies, does an AE burst of damage that can take people down fast. So, when it gets to 10k we all tend to run away and leave a sole tank in the vicinity.

Captains have a skill (Oathbreakers) that ups the damage on a mob by 35% for 15s that we can use every 5m.

Between Boss 1 and Boss(es) 2 (twins) in the raid there’s a fair amount of drudge-y trash mobs, so sometimes I chat tactics with whoever the other captain is (or general chitchat with anyone). Last week I simply commented that one of the things I sometimes do for fun is drop Oathbreakers on one of the firey mobs when it’s down to a third health and see if the raid notices the damage output is so much higher they need to run sooner. Most of the time they do. It’s never caused a wipe, I hasten to add… but I even felt bad while laughing about it.

I’m not a bad person, I just get bored and like my class skills to be noticed :-)

I think the key difference between what you have described and Spinks post yesterday is that there is obviously some familiarity between you and the raid. In the Frostheim scenario, he had no previous relationship with the people in the group and, much more importantly, he was not going to have any future relationships with the group; therefore, he could act like a jerk without fear of reprissals. I think it is a key distinction insomuch as by dropping an Oathbreaker during a raid, your guildies at least will have an opportunity in the future to return the favor. I mean, at least in WoW, misdirecting to an unsuspecting guildie ranks right up there at the top of fun things to do as a hunter. :)

How you behave with your friends is a matter for that community. Asking this question is like asking “is it ok to shove my friend sideways while we’re walking down the street?” Different people will have different answers (and the level of intoxication may be a factor).

I have to say though as a raid leader this kind of thing burned me out. Maybe I was doing it wrong though, too focused on winning to relax and goof around. It’s hard to run a semi-serious, semi-casual raid, especially when people start doing stuff like this.

I guess I should have been a bit more clear about the fact that possibly only one person has ever died due to this. Our raids are, in fact, focussed enough that they do notice the faster kill pace on the whole… but it amuses me sometimes to think I’m making a difference.

Can’t speak for Lord of the Rings, but when leading a raid in WoW, things like this are on a knife edge between being hilarious, and being utterly frustrating – largely depending on my and others’ moods before the event.

Our last raid before we stopped, many of us were making consistent efforts to get the other RL killed. We managed to kill quite a few other characters in the process, without succeeding, but I’m pretty sure everyone enjoyed themselves enormously – I certainly did.

Other raids, when I’m tired, or frustrated, or slightly guilty about not having started something I know I need to do before we even start the raid, I’m going to be irritated by something as simple as someone pulling aggro when they shouldn’t, even if it patently doesn’t matter in practice.

If you can read therest of your group correctly (which is obviously easier with friends), sure it’s a laugh, and may well end up as a running joke. You need to be reasonably good at gauging the right time though.